Sunday, March 26, 2017

Posted by Conspiracy Cafe on March 25, 2017 ~ after the father of our country ...it's been ALL down hill since ...no ? just think what can be accomplished wit an set of ...nades

To
make matters worse, politics were allowed to play a prominent part in
the selection of officers, and Washington complained that "the different
States [were], without regard to the qualifications of an officer,
quarrelling about the appointments, and nominating such as are not fit
to be shoeblacks, from the attachments of this or that member of
Assembly." As a result, so he wrote of New England, "their officers are
generally of the lowest class of the people; and, instead of setting a
good example to their men, are leading them into every kind of mischief,
one species of which is plundering the inhabitants, under the pretence
of their being Tories." To this political motive he himself would not
yield, and a sample of his appointments was given when a man was named
"because he stands unconnected with either of these Governments; or with
this, or that or tother man; for between you and me there is more in
this than you can easily imagine," and he asserted that "I will not have
any Gentn. introduced from family connexion, or local attachments, to
the prejudice of the Service."To
misbehaving soldiers Washington showed little mercy. In his first
service he had deserters and plunderers "flogged," and threatened that
if he could "lay hands" on one particular culprit, "I would try the
effect of 1000 lashes." At another time he had "a Gallows near 40 feet
high erected (which has terrified the rest exceedingly) and I am
determined if I can be justified in the proceeding, to hang two or three
on it, as an example to others." When he took command of the
Continental army he "made a pretty good slam among such kind of officers
as the Massachusetts Government abound in since I came to this Camp,
having broke one Colo, and two Captains for cowardly behavior in the
action on Bunker's Hill,—two Captains for drawing more provisions and
pay than they had men in their Company—and one for being absent from his
Post when the Enemy appeared there and burnt a House just by it Besides
these, I have at this time—one Colo., one Major, one Captn., & two
subalterns under arrest for tryal—In short I spare none yet fear it will
not at all do as these People seem to be too inattentive to every thing
but their Interest" "I am sorry," he wrote, "to be under a Necessity of
making frequent Examples among the Officers," but "as nothing can be
more fatal to an Army, than Crimes of this kind, I am determined by
every Motive of Reward and Punishment to prevent them in future." Even
when plundering was avoided there were short commons for those who clung
to the General. The commander-in-chief wrote Congress that "they have
often, very often, been reduced to the necessity of Eating Salt Porke,
or Beef not for a day, or a week but months together without Vegetables,
or money to buy them;" and again, he complained that "the Soldiers
[were forced to] eat every kind of horse food but Hay. Buckwheat, common
wheat, Rye and Indn. Corn was the composition of the Meal which made
their bread. As an Army they bore it, [but] accompanied by the want of
Cloaths, Blankets, &c., will produce frequent desertions in all
armies and so it happens with us, tho' it did not excite a mutiny." Even
the horses suffered, and Washington wrote to the quartermaster-general,
"Sir, my horses I am told have not had a mouthful of long or short
forage for three days. They have eaten up their mangers and are now,
(though wanted for immediate use,) scarcely able to stand."Two
results were sickness and discontent. At times one-fourth of the
soldiers were on the sick-list. Three times portions of the army
mutinied, and nothing but Washington's influence prevented the disorder
from spreading. At the end of the war, when, according to Hamilton, "the
army had secretly determined not to lay down their arms until due
provision and a satisfactory prospect should be offered on the subject
of their pay," the commander-in-chief urged Congress to do them justice,
writing, "the fortitude—the long, & great suffering of this army is
unexampled in history; but there is an end to all things & I fear
we are very near to this. Which, more than probably will oblige me to
stick very close to my flock this winter, & try like a careful
physician, to prevent, if possible, the disorders getting to an
incurable height." In this he judged rightly, for by his influence alone
was the army prevented from adopting other than peaceful measures to
secure itself justice.A chief part of these
difficulties the Continental Congress is directly responsible for, and
the reason for their conduct is to be found largely in the circumstances
of Washington's appointment to the command.When the
Second Congress met, in May, 1775, the battle of Lexington had been
fought, and twenty thousand minute-men were assembled about Boston. To
pay and feed such a horde was wholly beyond the ability of New England,
and her delegates came to the Congress bent upon getting that body to
assume the expense, or, as the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts
naively put it, "we have the greatest Confidence in the Wisdom and
Ability of the Continent to support us."The other
colonies saw this in a different light. Massachusetts, without our
advice, has begun a war and embodied an army; let Massachusetts pay her
own bills, was their point of view. "I have found this Congress like the
last," wrote John Adams. "When we first came together, I found a strong
jealousy of us from New England, and the Massachusettes in particular,
suspicions entertained of designs of independency, an American republic,
Presbyterian principles, and twenty other things. Our sentiments were
heard in Congress with great caution, and seemed to make but little
impression." Yet "every post brought me letters from my friends ...
urging in pathetic terms the impossibility of keeping their men together
without the assistance of Congress." "I was daily urging all these
things, but we were embarrassed with more than one difficulty, not only
with the party in favor of the petition to the King, and the party who
were zealous of independence, but a third party, which was a southern
party against a Northern, and a jealousy against a New England army
under the command of a New England General."Under
these circumstances a political deal was resorted to, and Virginia was
offered by John and Samuel Adams, as the price of an adoption and
support of the New England army, the appointment of commander-in-chief,
though the offer was not made with over-good grace, and only because "we
could carry nothing without conceding it." There was some dissension
among the Virginia delegates as to who should receive the appointment,
Washington himself recommending an old companion in arms, General Andrew
Lewis, and "more than one," Adams says of the Virginia delegates, were
"very cool about the appointment of Washington, and particularly Mr.
Pendleton was very clear and full against it" Washington himself said
the appointment was due to "partiality of the Congress, joined to a
political motive;" and, hard as it is to realize, it was only the
grinding political necessity of the New England colonies which secured
to Washington the place for which in the light of to-day he seems to
have been created.As a matter of course, there was not
the strongest liking felt for the General thus chosen by the New
England delegates, and this was steadily lessened by Washington's frank
criticism of the New England soldiers and officers already noticed.
Equally bitter to the New England delegates and their allies were
certain army measures that Washington pressed upon the attention of
Congress. He urged and urged that the troops should be enlisted for the
war, that promotions should be made from the army as a whole, and not
from the colony- or State-line alone, and most unpopular of all, that
since Continental soldiers could not otherwise be obtained, a bounty
should be given to secure them, and that as compensation for their
inadequate pay half-pay should be given them after the war. He
eventually carried these points, but at the price of an entire
alienation of the democratic party in the Congress, who wished to have
the war fought with militia, to have all the officers elected annually,
and to whom the very suggestion of pensions was like a red rag to a
bull.A part of their motive in this was unquestionably
to prevent the danger of a standing army, and of allowing the
commander-in-chief to become popular with the soldiers. Very early in
the war Washington noted "the jealousy which Congress unhappily
entertain of the army, and which, if reports are right, some members
labor to establish." And he complained that "I see a distrust and
jealousy of military power, that the commander-in-chief has not an
opportunity, even by recommendation, to give the least assurance of
reward for the most essential services." The French minister told his
government that when a committee was appointed to institute certain army
reforms, delegates in Congress "insisted on the danger of associating
the Commander-in-chief with it, whose influence, it was stated, was
already too great," and when France sent money to aid the American
cause, with the provision that it should be subject to the order of the
General, it aroused, a writer states, "the jealousy of Congress, the
members of which were not satisfied that the head of the army should
possess such an agency in addition to his military power."His
enemies in the Congress took various means to lessen his influence and
mortify him. Burke states that in the discussion of one question
"Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Carolina voted for
expunging it; the four Eastern States, Virginia and Georgia for
retaining it. There appeared through this whole debate a great desire,
in some of the delegates from the Eastern States, and in one from New
Jersey, to insult the General," and a little later the Congress passed a
"resolve which," according to James Lovell, "was meant to rap a Demi
G—over the knuckles." Nor was it by commission, but as well by omission,
that they showed their ill feeling. John Laurens told his father that"there
is a conduct observed towards" the General "by certain great men, which
as it is humiliating, must abate his happiness.... The Commander in
Chief of this army is not sufficiently informed of all that is known by
Congress of European affairs. Is it not a galling circumstance, for him
to collect the most important intelligence piecemeal, and as they choose
to give it, from gentlemen who come from York? Apart from the chagrin
which he must necessarily feel at such an appearance of slight, it
should be considered that in order to settle his plan of operations for
the ensuing campaign, he should take into view the present state of
European affairs, and Congress should not leave him in the dark."Furthermore,
as already noted, Washington was criticised for his Fabian policy, and
in his indignation he wrote to Congress, "I am informed that it is a
matter of amazement, and that reflections have been thrown out against
this army, for not being more active and enterprising than, in the
opinion of some, they ought to have been. If the charge is just, the
best way to account for it will be to refer you to the returns of our
strength, and those which I can produce of the enemy, and to the
enclosed abstract of the clothing now actually wanting for the army." "I
can assure those gentlemen," he said, in reply to political criticism,
"that it is a much easier and less distressing thing to draw
remonstrances in a comfortable room by a good fireside, than to occupy a
cold, bleak hill, and sleep under frost and snow, without clothes or
blankets."The ill feeling did not end with insults.
With the defeats of the years 1776 and 1777 it gathered force, and
towards the end of the latter year it crystallized in what has been
known in history as the Conway Cabal. The story of this conspiracy is so
involved in shadow that little is known concerning its adherents or its
endeavors. But in a general way it has been discovered that the New
England delegates again sought the aid of the Lee faction in Virginia,
and that this coalition, with the aid of such votes as they could
obtain, schemed several methods which should lessen the influence of
Washington, if they did not force him to resign. Separate and detached
commands were created, which were made independent of the
commander-in-chief, and for this purpose even a scheme which the General
called "a child of folly" was undertaken. Officers notoriously inimical
to Washington, yet upon whom he would be forced to rely, were promoted.
A board of war made up of his enemies, with powers "in effect
paramount," Hamilton says, "to those of the commander-in-chief," was
created It is even asserted that it was moved in Congress that a
committee should be appointed to arrest Washington, which was defeated
only by the timely arrival of a new delegate, by which the balance of
power was lost to the Cabal.Even with the collapse of
the army Cabal the opposition in Congress was maintained. "I am very
confident," wrote General Greene, "that there is party business going on
again, and, as Mifflin is connected with it, I doubt not its being a
revival of the old scheme;" again writing, "General Schuyler and others
consider it a plan of Mifflin's to injure your Excellency's operations. I
am now fully convinced of the reality of what I suggested to you before
I came away." In 1779 John Sullivan, then a member of Congress, wrote,—"Permit
me to inform your Excellency, that the faction raised against you in
1777, is not yet destroyed. The members are waiting to collect strength,
and seize some favorable moment to appear in force. I speak not from
conjecture, but from certain knowledge. Their plan is to take every
method of proving the danger arising from a commander, who enjoys the
full and unlimited confidence of his army, and alarm the people with the
prospects of imaginary evils; nay, they will endeavor to convert your
virtue into arrows, with which, they will seek to wound you."But
Washington could not be forced into a resignation, ill-treat and slight
him as they would, and at no time were they strong enough to vote him
out of office. For once a Congressional "deal" between New England and
Virginia did not succeed, and as Washington himself wrote, "I have a
good deal of reason to believe that the machination of this junto will
recoil on their own heads, and be a means of bringing some matters to
light which by getting me out of the way, some of them thought to
conceal," In this he was right, for the re-elections of both Samuel
Adams and Richard Henry Lee were put in danger, and for some time they
were discredited even in their own colonies. "I have happily had,"
Washington said to a correspondent, "but few differences with those with
whom I have had the honor of being connected in the service. With whom,
and of what nature these have been, you know. I bore much for the sake
of peace and the public good"As is well known,
Washington served without pay during his eight years of command, and, as
he said, "fifty thousand pounds would not induce me again to undergo
what I have done." No wonder he declared "that the God of armies may
incline the hearts of my American brethren to support the present
contest, and bestow sufficient abilities on me to bring it to a speedy
and happy conclusion, thereby enabling me to sink into sweet retirement,
and the full enjoyment of that peace and happiness, which will
accompany a domestic life, is the first wish and most fervent prayer of
my soul."The day finally came when his work was
finished, and he could be, as he phrased it, "translated into a private
citizen." Marshall describes the scene as follows: "At noon, the
principal officers of the army assembled at Frances' tavern; soon after
which, their beloved commander entered the room. His emotions were too
strong to be concealed. Filling a glass, he turned to them and said,
'With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you; I
most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy,
as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.' Having drunk, he
added, 'I cannot come to each of you to take my leave; but shall be
obliged to you, if each of you will come and take me by the hand.'
General Knox, being nearest, turned to him. Incapable of utterance,
Washington grasped his hand, and embraced him. In the same affectionate
manner he took leave of each succeeding officer. In every eye was the
tear of dignified sensibility, and not a word was articulated to
interrupt the majestic silence, and the tenderness of the scene. Leaving
the room, he passed through the corps of light infantry, and walked to
Whitehall, where a barge waited to convey him to Powles-hook. The whole
company followed in mute and solemn procession, with dejected
countenance ... Having entered the barge, he turned to the company, and,
waving his hat, bade them a silent adieu."http://www.infoplease.com/t/history/true-washington/congrsssional-interference.html